Nearly 5 on a friday. Why am I still here when every other bugger seems to have wandered off early? Partly cos I still need to make the hours up, and partly cos Joan is having to stay late so I might as well too.

Had one of the regular Car Park meetings I tag along to today. I don't really have much to say but its nice to get Park & Ride recognised as part of the overall town centre scheme of things. And I get to pick up the odd bit of juicy gossip relating to the town as well. Followed that up with lunch with my former colleague Richard who now works for Ipswich Borough Council (as assistant Car Park Manger, funnily enough) - a nice Wetherspoons Minted Lamb Burger and pint of cider. Total outlay for the two of us was less than a tenner, so not bad value either!

Am now heads down in the proof checking of the new area timetable books. Found errors on 30 pages in the first one I've looked at, so I guess next week will be spent in more of the same. In the past I've taken them home to work on, but I'm not doing that any more. Home is not to be messed with. That's one thing I've learned in recent months since my last attack of stressage.

Another musical recommendation is Black Market Music by Placebo. Well, the first half that I listened to on the way in for now. Not that I expect the rest of it to go dramatically downhill. Awesome drum sound.

Busy morning, and I probably shouldn't be taking the time for this either. Just sent off an advert for Park & Ride to go in the Suffolk Business Magazine's Suffolk Show special and now have to write them 250-500 words of copy to go with it. I don't mind blowing my own trumpet for p&r (well, that is my job...) but I always assumed that the people who worked for magazines actually wrote them. Another one to add to the list of misconceptions then. Have also thrashed out another timetable for our next set of books and drawn on some maps. Hopefully this afternoon will give me a chance to do the collation of opinions stuff.

Only 1½ days to the weekend! And at least this weekend I haven't got to go anywhere with anyone so I can be a bit selfish for a change. OK, there will be the usual stuff to do like ironing and another crack at finding some shelves from under the piles of junk in the study, but at least I will be able to choose the accompaniment. However you spell that.

On the health front, I do at least seem to have got through the waves of feeling like death that were hitting me a couple of weeks ago. With any luck that will continue. Of course some of that could have been due to a mysterious bend that appeared in my glasses and is now fixed. Answers on a postcard or sealed antelope.

Finally got my own car back again. It's only been a week and a bit, but feels like forever. Had to remember to change gears and things which put a damper on waving to people when cornering at high speed. Only joking, I'm too much of a grumpy git in the mornings to be waving. It did mean I got back to the Star Wars radio series as well after the same gap. Good job I know the story backwards anyway!

Remarkably thin on the ground here in the office today. Most of the network team are out surveying bus routes, and their boss has phoned in sick. Nearly did that myself as I wasn't feeling too hot first thing, but seem OK now. Person I'm most annoyed isn't here is Danny from Policy. Not because I'd prefer it if he was here, but because he is at a conference in Denmark - in Arhus, one of my favourite places in the world. The swine.

Time to crack on then.

Meeting not as tedious and predictable as feared, and I seem to have ended up with the job of collating our points/ideas/questions into something we can put to a higher level. Not sure if any of our input will resolve anything or change what happens in the long run, but we've got to try.

So now it is nearly time to go home. Should finish catching up on the tv we didn't watch last week tonight. Well, actually we've already caught up on those tapes and now just have to watch the stuff we recorded while catching up. If that makes sense. So Monday's Billy Connolly and last nights Holby. Completely forgot about Holby last week, which is a bit of a blow, but I'm sure we'll work it out.

In a typical move, now I've finally got round to buying those Miles Hunt cds claiming to have stuff from a forthcoming album because the album still hadn't forthcome what do I find in the shops today? Yup, a new CD from the man himself. Not the one these proclaim though. It does have some of the tracks I've just bought, and also some from his previous album but also some new stuff so I expect I'll get it sooner or later.

Time to get out of here for the day.

Had a PC freeze there and thought I'd lost all that. Seems to have survived though, now to do some work.

Was listening to Papa Roach on the way in today, and I have to say it surprised me. Not the quality of their shouty rappy metally stuff (which didn't put them in my top 20 but I won't be erasing the minidisc either...) but the simple fact that where I was expecting the odd swear word, there weren't any. Having heard one of their songs (Last Resort) via Kerrang TV I was assuming I'd only encountered a doctored-for-daytime-tv type version as the lyrics seemed to suddenly cut out at the end of some lines - the obvious answer to that being a bit of editing. However, the same thing happens on the cd I borrowed from the library. I know some films get doctored for tv or airline versions (like, removing the plane crash from The Mummy for the airlines, can't think why...) but I can't believe this is a special library version of the album. After all, I've borrowed plenty of others that sound just like they should, rude words and all. Obviously some form of either self-censorship or just done to make us think perhaps? Either way I'm intrigued.

I think today is going to be a long one. The staffing review we were initially promised before Christmas (in fact, I think we should have had it in September) finally materialised on Monday, and we are having a group meeting this afternoon to discuss it. I can't see that being over quickly. From a personal point of view, I am once again annoyed to see the idea raised of moving Park & Ride from my responsibility to the network team. The part of my job I enjoy the most. I will not be giving that away without a fight. They also seem to have forgotten about large parts of what we do (such as bus stop maintenance, shelters etc) so I reckon we could be in for some lively debate. The biggest problem at the moment is of course the fact that they haven't done anything yet to replace my manager since he retured in January (like, it came as a surprise to personnel) and Gary is off with pneumonia. So Dawn and I are left trying to do four jobs. No wonder we both look zonked half the time. Of course, that means I should really be getting on with stuff rather than writing this, so I'd better do so. More later I think - I'll probably need to let off steam!

Just occurred to me that I have done precious little in the way of what it says on the left, and talked about cultural input of late.

What with the busy week, there hasn't been much in the way of it (still reading Trevithick, only listened to the CDs that came in the post) but we did watch the whole of series 3 of The Royle Family last week. OK, so that is only 7 episodes at 25ish minutes each, but notable anyway. We are all agreed on the total brilliance of the show - from concept through to realisation. Especially the way it evolved over the three series to encompass slight variations on the sitting around watching tv theme. Personal top bit is the stripping of wallpaper in time to Mambo No. 5 in the 3rd series, but all of every episode is noteworthy in some shape or form.

A real pity that Caroline Aherne had to leave the country for her own good. Am now hoping that (a) the series she has done in Australia turns out to be up to scratch and (b) they release the series she did with Craig Cash of Mrs Merton & Malcolm which was equally hilarious in its own special way.

Off home now.

...Wasn't expecting that to mean two days later, but there you go.

Where was I? Oh yes, Thursday we stayed around Felixstowe - partly so they could see the "market" (if you can call it that with the low number of stalls) and partly because Joan had to go to the dentist. Strangely enough, we actually managed to spend some money at the Market for a change and it was nice not to be rushing off to somewhere else. In the evening the girls went Bingo-ing again (and, again, didn't win more than the cost of getting in) while us chaps went to the pub to play darts and pool. Oh, what a fun time we had.

Friday morning we went to Woodbridge via Homebase for Stuart to buy wallpaper to take home to Canada. Some of that lumpy Anaglypta stuff they can't find at home apparantly. I get the feeling that my taste in interior design is a bit different from theirs! Perhaps they are still thinking about the UK they emigrated from 30+ years ago rather than what we have now. Anyway, Woodbridge was as pleasant as ever even if bitterly cold in the wind/shade. When will we start to get some real heat from all this sun then?

In the evening we went to The Beagle at Sproughton for dinner. One of my favourite pubs in the area for a meal, and it lived up to expectations once again. Part of the Vintage Inns chain run by Greene King, so they are probably all just as good.

Saturday we did Ipswich with them. I ended up with some new trousers and we got the last of Richard's birthday presents. It is actually his birthday today (we went round there last night for dinner and to gift him up). And then yesterday they left us to go up North.

Fun but frenzied few days, and my ears have just about returned to normal levels of input now. Not sure how long it will take the cat to calm down though. She really doesn't like Shiela, and the feeling is reciprocated. I'm glad I haven't got to worry about getting all the stuff they have bought home - they've had to buy an extra suitcase already - after the hassle we had coming back from theirs last year. Shiela will be back with us in May for another week or so.

So now I am back at work, and have just about made it through the emails and in tray after 7 hours of slog. Would much rather be at home catching up on lost sleep from last week. Didn't even manage to get away from the desk for lunch today, so nothing interesting left to talk about for now.